US History: Expansion, Civil War, and Reconstruction Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards based on lecture notes covering major US historical milestones from Manifest Destiny and the Mexican-American War through the Civil War and the Reconstruction Era.

Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!

Polk's campaign slogan referring to the line of latitude for the Oregon Territory border.

Wilmot Proviso

A failed proposal to forbid slavery in any new territory acquired from Mexico; it heightened sectional tensions.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)

Ended the Mexican-American War; U.S. got the Mexican Cession (CA, NM, AZ, UT, NV) for $\$15 \text{ million}$.

Ostend Manifesto

A secret attempt by Southern diplomats to buy Cuba from Spain to expand slave territory; it outraged Northerners when leaked.

Gadsden Purchase

The $\$10 \text{ million}$ purchase of a strip of desert land from Mexico to build a southern transcontinental railroad.

Free-Soil Party

Political party that opposed the expansion of slavery into new territories (not necessarily abolitionists, but wanted "free soil, free labor, free men").

Popular Sovereignty

The idea that the people living in a territory should vote to decide whether to allow slavery (championed by Stephen Douglas).

Compromise of 1850

Admitted CA as a free state, but included the Fugitive Slave Act (which Northerners hated).

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

Overturned the Missouri Compromise by allowing popular sovereignty in KS and NE; led to "Bleeding Kansas."

Dred Scott v. Sandford

Supreme Court ruled that slaves were property, not citizens, and that Congress could not prohibit slavery in any territory.

John Brown’s Raid

An attack on Harpers Ferry to start a slave revolt; Brown became a martyr in the North and a terrorist in the South.

Anaconda Plan

The Union’s naval blockade strategy to "squeeze" the South into submission.

Habeas Corpus

Civil liberty suspended by Lincoln during the war so he could arrest pro-Confederate agitators without a trial.

Emancipation Proclamation

Issued after Antietam; freed slaves only in states currently in rebellion (didn't actually free many people immediately, but changed the war's purpose).

Gettysburg Address

Lincoln’s speech that reframed the war as a struggle for "a new birth of freedom."

Homestead Act (1862)

Promoted settlement of the Great Plains by giving $160 \text{ acres}$ of public land to anyone who farmed it for five years.

Proclamation of Amnesty & Reconstruction (10% Plan)

Lincoln’s lenient plan to readmit Southern states once $10\%$ of voters took an oath of loyalty.

Freedmen's Bureau

Government agency designed to help former slaves and poor whites with food, shelter, and education.

13th Amendment

Constitutional amendment that abolished slavery.

14th Amendment

Constitutional amendment that granted citizenship and "equal protection under the law."

15th Amendment

Constitutional amendment that guaranteed voting rights regardless of race.

Sharecropping

A system that replaced slavery; black families farmed land and gave a "share" of crops to owners, often leading to a cycle of debt.

Compromise of 1877

Effectively ended Reconstruction; Republicans got the Presidency (Hayes), and Democrats got the federal troops removed from the South.